The Common Principles of the Christian Religion, Sermon 23
Eccles. 7. 29. God made man upright, but he sought out many inventions.
THe one half of true Religion consists in the knowledge of ourselves, and the other half in the knowledge of God; and vvhatever besides this, men study to know and apply their hearts unto, it's vain and impertinent, and like medling in other men… matters, neglecting our own, if vve do not give our minds to the search of these All of us must needs grant this in the general, that it is an idle and improfitable duplicate page duplicate page wandering abroad, to be carried forth to the knowledge and use of other things, and in the mean time to be strangers to our selves, vvith vvhom v… should be most acquainted. If any man vvas diligen… and earnest in the enquiry and use of the things of the vvorld, Solomon vvas; he applyed his heart to seek out vvisdom, and vvhat satisfaction vvas in the knowledge of all things natural, and in this he attained a great degree beyond all other men; yet he pronounces of it all, after experience and tryal, that this also was vanity, and vexation of spirit; not only empty and unprofitable, and not conducing to that true blessedness he sought after; but hurtful and destructive, nothing but grief and sorrow in it. After he had proved all, vvith a resolution to be vvise, yet it vvas far from him, I said, I will be wise, but it was far from me, verse 23. And therefore, after long vvandering abroad, he returns at length home to himself, to know the estate of mankind; Lo, this only have I sound, &c. ver. 29. When I have searched all other things, & found many things by search, yet (saith he) vvhat doth it all concern me, vvhen I am ignorant of my self? There is one thing concerns me more then all, to know the original of Man, vvhat he once vvas made, and to know how far he is departed from his Original. This only I have found profitable to men, and as the entry and preparation to that blessedness I enquire for, To have the true discovery of our misery.
There are two things then concerning man that you have to search & to know, & that not in a tri…ing or curious manner, as if you had no other end in it but to know it, as men do in other things, but in a serious & earnest way, as … a matter of so much concernment to our eternal well-being. In things that relate particularly to our selves, vve labor to know them for ome advantage, besides the knowing of them, even though they be but …mal and lower things; how much more should vve propose this unto our selves in the search and examination of our own estate, not mee…ly to …now such a thing; but to know it that vve may be … up and provoked in the sense of it, to look after the remedy that God holds forth? There are two things that you have to know, What man once vvas made, and how he is now unmade: how happy once, and how miserable now. And answerable to these two, are the branches of the Text; God made man…upright, that he was once; and they have fought out many inventions, not being contented vvith that blessedness they vvere created into, by catching at a higher estate of vvisdom, have fallen down into a gulf of misery, as the man that gazed on the stars above him, and did not take notice of the pit under his feet till he fell into it; and thus man is now. So you have a short account of the two estates of men, of the estate of grace and righteousness vvithout sin, and the estate of sin and misery … grace: You hav… th… … story of man, from the creation unto his present condition. But all the matter is, to have the lively sens… of this upon our hearts: I had rather that vve vvent home bewailing our loss, and lamenting our misery, and longing for the recovery of that …, then that vve vvent out vvith the exact memory of all … is spoken, and could repeat it again.
God made man upright. At hi… …st moulding the Lord shewed excellent Art and Wisdom, and Goodness too: Man did come forth from under his hand in the first edition very glorious, to show vvhat he could do. Upright, that is, all right & very exactly conformed to the noble and high pattern, endowed vvith divine vvisdom, such … might direct him to true happiness, and furnished vvith a divine vvillingness to follow that direction: The command was not above his head as a rod, but within his heart as a natural instinct; all that vvas vvithin him vvas comely & beautiful: for that glorious light that shined upon him, having life and love vvith it, produced a sweet harmony in the soul; he knew his duty, and loved it, and v…as able to perform it. O! how much is in this one word▪ Upright? Not only sincerity and integrity in the soul, but perfection of all the degrees and parts; no part of holiness wanting, and no measure of these parts; no mixture of darkness or ignorance, no mixture of indisposition or unwillingness; godliness vvas …weet, and not laborious; the love of God possessing the heart, did conform all vvithin and vvithout to the vvill of God: and, O how beautiful vvas that conformity, and that love of God! the fountain-being did send forth as a stream, love and good-will to all things, as they did partake of Gods Image: and so holiness towards God did beget righteousness towards men, and made men to partake of one anothers happiness.
This is a survey of him in his integrity as God …de him; but there follows a sad but, a sad and vvo…l exception: but they have sought out many inventions. We cannot look upon that glorious estate vvhereinto m…n was made, but straightway we must turn our eyes upon th… misery into which he hath plunged himself, and be the more affected with it, that it was once otherwise. It is misery in a high degree to have been once happy; this …ost of all agredges our misery, and may encrease the sense of it, that such Man once was, and such we might have been, if we had not destroyed our selves. Who can look upon these ruins, and refrain …ouring? It's said, that those who saw the glory of the first Temple, we…t when they beheld the second, because it was not answerable to it in magni…ence and glory: So, I say, it might occasion much …ness & grief, even to the children of God, in whom that Image is in part repaired; and that by a second Creation, to think how much more happy and blessed Man once was, who had grace and holiness without sin. But certainly, it should and must be at first, before this Image be restored, the bitter lamentation of a soul, to look upon it self wholly ruinous and defaced, in the view of that glorious stately fabrick which once was made. How lamentable a sight is it to behold the first Temple demolished, or the first Creation defaced, and the second not yet begun in many souls, the foundation-stone yet not laid? It was a sad and dol…ul invention which Satan inspired at first into mans heart, to go about to find out another happiness, to seek how to be wise as God; an invention tha… did proceed from hell, how to know evil experimentally and practically by doing it; that invention hath invented and found out all the sin and misery under which the world groans. It is a poor invention to devise misery and torment to the creature; this was the height of solly and madness, for a happy creature to invent how to make it self miserable, and all others. Indeed he intended another thing to be more happy, but pride and ambition got a deserved fall: the result of all, is sin and misery.
And now, from this first devillish invention, the heart of man is possessed with a multitude of vain imaginations. Man is now become vain in his imaginations, and his foolish heart is darkned; that divine wisdom he was endowed withall, is eclipsed; for it was a ray of Gods countenance, and now he is left wholly in the dark, without a guide, without a director or leader; he is turned out of the path of holiness, and so of happiness; a night of gross darkness & blindness is come on, & the way is full of pits and snares, & the end of it is at best, eternal misery; and there is no lamp, no light to shine in it, to show him either the misery that he is posting unto, or the happinesse that he is flying from: There is nothing within him sufficient to direct his way to blessednesse, and nothing willing nor able to follow such a direction. And thus Man is left to the invention and counsel of his own desperately wicked and d…ful heart; and that is above all plagues to be given up to a reprobate mind. He is now left to such a tutor and guide…, and it is full of inventions indeed. But they are all in vain, that is, all of them unsufficient for this great purpose; all of them cannot make one hair that is black white, much les… redeem the soul, but besides, they are destructive; they pretend to deliver, but they destroy; a desperate wicked heart imagineth evil continually, evil against God and evil to our own souls; and a deceitful heart …mooths over the evil, and presents it under another notion, and so, under pretence of a friend, it's the greatest enemy a man hath, a bosome enemy. Al mens inventions, thoughts, cogitations, projects and endeavors, what do they tend to, but to the satisfaction of their lusts; either the lusts of the mind, as Ambition, Pride, Avarice, Passion, Revenge, and such like, or the lusts of the body, as pleasure to the ears; and to the eyes, and to the flesh? Man was made with an upright soul, with a dominion over that brutish part more like Angels: But now, all his invention run upon that base and beastly part, how to adorn it, how to beautifie it, how to satisfie it, and for this his soul must be a drudge and slave: And if men rise up to any thoughts of a higher life, yet what is it for, but to magnifie and exalt the flesh to seek an Excellency within which is lost, and so to satisfie the pride and self-love of the heart. If any man comes this length, … to apprehend some misery; yet how vain are his inventions about the remedy of it, not knowing how desperate the disease is, men seek help in themselves, & think by industry and care, & art, to raise themselves up in some measure, & please God by some expiations or sacrifices of their own works: Now, this tends to no other purpose; but to satisfie the lust of mans pride, and so it increases that which was mans first malady, and keeps them from the true Physician. In a word, all mens inventions are to hasten misery on him, or to blindfold himself till it come on; all his invention cannot reach a delivery from this misery: Let us therefore consider this which Solomon hath found out, and if we carefully consider it, and accurately ponder it in relation to our own souls, thē have we also …ound it with him. Consider I say what man once was, and what you are now, and bewaile your misery and the fountain of it, our departure from the fountain of life and blessednesse: know what you are, not only weak, but wicked, whose art and power lyes only in wickednesse, skilful, and able only to make your self miserable, and let this consideration make you cast away all your confidence in your selves, and carry you forth to a Redeemer, who hath …ound a ransome, who hath found out an excellent invention to cure all our distempers and desperate diseases. The counsel of the holy Trinity that met about (if I may speak so) our creation in holynesse and righteousness after his own Image, that same hath consulted about the rest of it, & hath found out this course, that one of them shal bee made after mans Image, and for this purpose that he may restore again Gods Image unto us: O bless this deep invention and happy contrivance of heaven that could never have bred in any breast but in the depths of eternal wisedome, and let us abandon & forsake our own imaginations, and foolish inventions; let us become fools in our own eyes, that we may become wise. Man by seeking to be wise, became a fool, that was an unhappy invention; now its turned contrary, let all men take vvith their folly and desperate vvickedness, let not the vain thoughts and dreams of our own vvelbeing and sufficiency lodge vvithin us, and vve shal be made vvise; come to the Fathers vvisdom, unto Jesus Christ, vvho is that blessed invention of Heaven, for our remedy. How long shal vain thoughts lodge within you? O when will you be washed from them? How long shal not your thoughts transcend this temporal and bodily life? How long do you imagine to live in sin, and die in the Lord; to continue in sin, and escape wrath? Why do you delude your souls with a dream of having interest in the love of God, and purchasing his favor by your works? These are some of those many inventions man hath sought out.